First workspace setup
The first setup pass creates the organisation, establishes administrative ownership, and prepares TOW to capture a trusted company baseline.
Use this guide when you are opening TOW for the first time on a new server.
1. Create the first account
Go to the TOW sign-in page and register the first user account.
The first administrator depends on the server authentication mode chosen before first boot:
| Authentication mode | First administrator |
|---|---|
builtin | The first registered email/password user. |
oidc | The first successful OIDC login through authentik or the configured identity provider. |
That first user becomes:
- The first organisation owner.
- A server admin.
- The default owner of the initial workspace setup flow.
Use an email address that should be allowed to administer the workspace long term. You can invite more people later, but the first account has elevated responsibility from the beginning. In OIDC mode, later users must have an invite or an already linked identity.
Review-sensitive action: The first account is not just a test login. It receives organisation ownership and server administration. Use a real administrative email and store the credentials according to your company's security process.
2. Confirm the organisation
After registration, TOW creates or selects an active organisation for the user. The organisation is the top-level company workspace.
In Organisation Settings, organisation admins can manage:
- Organisation name and logo.
- Workflow mode.
- Members and invites.
- Groups.
- Invite expiration defaults.
If your company has multiple legal entities, teams, or customer environments, decide early whether they belong in one organisation with projects or in separate organisations.
3. Choose the workflow mode
During onboarding, TOW asks how the workspace should operate.
| Mode | Choose when |
|---|---|
| Founder | A founder or very small leadership group wants direct coaching, focus, strategy, and execution support. |
| Organization | A team needs shared ownership, access control, accountability, and formal project work. |
The workflow mode affects the way TOW frames operating guidance and AI assistance. Organisation admins can change it later from Organisation Settings.
Hidden gotcha: Workflow mode is not a data migration. Existing docs, memory, tickets, and snapshots stay in place. If you change modes later, review your active priorities, open decisions, and current snapshot so the workspace tone and facts remain aligned.
4. Complete company onboarding
Company onboarding captures the facts TOW should use as the first map of the business. Fill in what you know, even if some areas are still incomplete.
The onboarding flow covers:
- Workflow mode.
- Company basics, including name, one-liner, stage, location, website, and legal notes.
- Product description, users, use cases, differentiators, and current status.
- Market, ideal customer profile, competitors, alternatives, pain, and channels.
- Strategy, priorities, milestones, open decisions, non-goals, and things to ignore.
- Technical stack, architecture, integrations, data sources, model strategy, and evaluation strategy.
- Operations, team, roles, fundraising, metrics, constraints, risks, blockers, and cadence.
Company name and one-liner are required before you can move past the company step. Other fields can be rough, but the more specific you are, the more useful TOW's first memory and snapshot will be.
Use plain business language. TOW is better at helping when priorities, blockers, customers, and risks are described as concrete facts rather than slogans.
5. Review the pending snapshot
After onboarding, TOW creates a pending Current company state from onboarding snapshot. The onboarding dialog remains in a pending review state until you open Snapshots and activate it.
Review the snapshot for:
- Incorrect assumptions.
- Missing priorities or blockers.
- Outdated legal, market, or technical details.
- Vague risks that should be rewritten.
- Items that should become tickets, decisions, or docs.
You can edit the snapshot body before activation.
AI review: Onboarding creates memory, task seeds, and a pending snapshot from the information you entered. Review the snapshot before relying on Chat, Today, roadmap generation, or strategic summaries.
6. Activate the snapshot
In Snapshots, select the pending onboarding snapshot, edit it if needed, and choose Activate.
Once activated, the snapshot becomes the current trusted company state for that scope. TOW uses it as a baseline for answers, operating guidance, and future review.
Review-sensitive action: Activating a snapshot changes which summary TOW treats as current. Do not activate a snapshot that contains guesses, stale strategy, or sensitive notes that should not guide the organisation.
7. Invite teammates
Organisation owners and admins can invite members from Organisation Settings.
When inviting teammates:
- Enter the person's email.
- Add first name, last name, and title when known.
- Choose the organisation role.
- Optionally assign a group.
- Share the generated invite URL through your normal secure channel.
Invites can expire. The default expiration can be changed by organisation admins.
| Role | Use for |
|---|---|
| Member | Standard workspace users. |
| Admin | People who manage organisation settings, members, groups, and broad workspace administration. |
| Owner | Highest organisation-level responsibility. Assign carefully. |
8. Prepare projects
After organisation onboarding, TOW prompts you to create the first project yourself from the project creation wizard. You can create additional projects later from the project picker in the app shell.
Use projects when you need to separate:
- Product lines.
- Customer implementations.
- Internal initiatives.
- Restricted work.
- Distinct workflows or custom fields.
Project scope: The project picker affects many pages. Before creating docs, running check-ins, generating snapshots, or asking Chat project-specific questions, make sure the active scope is All Projects or the intended project.
Setup checklist
Before daily use, confirm:
- The first account belongs to the right administrator.
- The organisation name and workflow mode are correct.
- Onboarding has been submitted.
- The first snapshot has been reviewed and activated.
- Core members have been invited.
- Groups are available for repeated access patterns.
- Project scope is understood by the team.
- AI status is idle before assuming all generated results are visible.
Job queues: Snapshot generation, check-in processing, doc review, and memory extraction may run in the background. If setup output does not appear immediately, wait until the AI status returns to idle and refresh the relevant page.